If you mention the end of the Ming Dynasty, you have to mention the Chongzhen Emperor, who personally stabbed the relatives of the imperial family at the time of the fall of the imperial dynasty, and then hung up the coal mountain, achieving the ancestral precept of "the son of heaven guards the gate of the country, and the king dies in the society", and also left the sigh of "the king is not the king of the subjugated country, the subject is the subject of the subjugation of the country".
However, in the seventeen years since Chongzhen ascended the throne, how did Zhu Youjian, who was considered by everyone to be a saint who turned the tide of the tide, and Zhu Youjian, who was considered by his brother Emperor Tianqi to be the "Prince of Yao Shun", step by step, come to the point of national destruction and family death?
To find out the truth of the facts, it is necessary to mention the historical events of the Chongzhen Emperor's ascension to the throne and the "five years of Pingliao".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > teenager ascended the throne and eradicated the castration party</h1>
In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, Emperor Mingxi, who was abandoned in government affairs and indulged in carpentry's work, accidentally fell into the water, and it did not take long for him to die, and soon he drove the crane west, leaving only a Ming Empire with wind and rain and almost a building about to fall.
Because of his youth and no heirs, before his death, the Emperor of Tianqi entrusted the Ming Empire, which had been delayed for more than two hundred years, with eunuchs in chaos and Jurchens raging outside, to his fifteen-year-old fifth brother Zhu Youjian, making him the sixteenth emperor of the Ming Empire, with the era name Chongzhen.
From the beginning of his rise to power, he vigorously eradicated the castration party and promoted Qingliu, he was an emperor who wanted to make a difference, but because of his premature rise to power, it also showed that he lacked political ability and did not really find the real root cause of the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
The existence of the eunuch party itself is used by the emperor to balance the growing civilian official clique, to prevent the civilian bureaucracy from becoming too powerful, thus directly threatening the imperial power, and the eradication of the eunuch party will cause the civilian bureaucracy to lose its restraint, so that the imperial power will face the entire civilian official system, so that all the pressure needs to be carried by the emperor alone.
The eradication of the eunuch party that relied on imperial power also led to the beginning of division within the civilian official clique, resulting in a series of parties such as the Donglin Party, the Chu Party, and the Qi Party, and they fought endlessly for the sake of interests, but in the face of imperial power, they were unanimously external, resulting in the Ming Ruling Group tearing each other apart and gradually collapsing.
And since the pressure needs to be carried by the emperor, then the first responsible person Chongzhen must be well-deserved, but he himself cherishes feathers, is self-conscious, easy to trust others but is extremely suspicious, so that the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty is getting worse and worse, and this pot Chongzhen Emperor cannot run away.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="36" > five years of Pingliao</h1>
If we say that chongzhen's biggest setback to the throne is the "five years of pingliao".
Yuan Chonghuan, who has been much debated in history, once boasted to the Chongzhen Emperor, who had just ascended the throne and became the Son of Heaven: "The subject is very favored by His Majesty, and is willing to get the opportunity to act cheaply, and it only takes five years, and all liaodong can be restored." ”
It is reasonable to say that it is a good thing to want to pacify Liaodong, but with the current complicated situation in the Ming Dynasty, five years of Pingliao is undoubtedly an empty phrase, xiong Tingbi and Sun Chengzong before Yuan Chonghuan are all masters, but in the face of the mess in Liaodong, they are also helpless, and can only maintain the defensive position.
In addition, due to the corruption of the entire bureaucratic system of the Ming Court, officials at all levels withheld layers of silver when they paid Liaodong, so that only 34% of the salaries and silver that Liaodong could receive were only 34%. In order to be corrupt, the local generals in Liaodong ate more empty salaries, so the soldiers were far less than the quota.
Because of this, the Liaodong soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were inferior in combat strength, and those who had combat strength were often the family members under the generals, but they were okay to fight a downwind battle, and once they fought with the fierce soldiers and pawns of the Houjin Army, who came out of the white mountains and black waters, it can be said that they collapsed in one battle.
Although at this time Houjin suffered a catastrophe internally, so that it reached the tragic situation of "cannibalism", due to the heroic divine martial arts of the Later Jin Emperor Taiji, although he had only been on the throne for one year, he had stubbornly stabilized the situation, so that Houjin did not collapse because of this.
To sum up, how complicated it was to pacify Liaodong, but Yuan Chonghuan, in order to comfort the Chongzhen Emperor, who was eager for success and quick profits, bluntly said that pingliao for five years, so that the Chongzhen Emperor was very happy, saying that as long as he could do this, he would never skimp on the reward of the marquis.
In order to ensure that Yuan Chonghuan could pingliao for five years, the Chongzhen Emperor could say that he wanted money to give money, power to power, and also gave Shangfang the sword to control the towns, and it could be said that all the grace and resources on his body were invested in Pingliao.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="37" > the "five-year Pingliao" plan failed</h1>
However, it is lamentable that Yuan Chonghuan obviously failed to live up to the hopes given by the Chongzhen Emperor, and before long, the Chongzhen Emperor was not waiting for the success of the front, but Yuan Chonghuan took the Shangfang sword and ordered the beheading of Mao Wenlong, a member of the imperial court from Erpin, and although the Chongzhen Emperor was very dissatisfied, in order to appease him, he could only acquiesce to this matter.
After only three months, in order to divert the domestic contradictions, Huang Taiji made an extremely bold decision, that is, to bypass the Ningjin Defense Line, run thousands of miles to attack the Xifeng Pass, and then break into the interior to plunder, thus getting rid of the current predicament.
In this way, the Later Jin army, led by the Mongols, broke into the weakly defended Xifeng Pass and entered Guannei, burning and looting all the way, causing the Zhili area to be destroyed, and then surrounded the capital of the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing Division, which can almost be said to be a replica of the change of Tumu Fort.
Although the Later Jin army retreated for fear of encirclement, this incident undoubtedly caused great humiliation to the Ming court, and the whole country was shaken, and the Chongzhen Emperor, who was eager to establish great achievements, was poured with a basin of cold water, and the concept of "five years of Pingliao" was officially declared bankrupt.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="38" > Yuan Chonghuan, who was executed by Ling Chi</h1>
Although the Later Jin Army withdrew for various reasons, it also pulled down the fig leaf of the Ming Dynasty's external reality and internal weakness. Because the pot was too big, the emperor did not dare to carry it, or could not carry it.
After all, the governor of Jiliao was Yuan Chonghuan, who specialized in overseeing the military affairs of Liaodong, and also received all the support of the Chongzhen Emperor and the state, but the Later Jin army silently detoured through the Xifeng Pass and burst into Guannei, while the Liaodong side did not know anything, until the Jingshi was besieged, and suddenly realized that this pot Yuan Chonghuan did not back.
Zu Dashou
Soon, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned, but his subordinate Zu Dashou, at this time, disregarded the safety of the capital and directly led the troops away, so that Chongzhen had to personally write to him to let him return, and this practice undoubtedly pronounced the death penalty on Yuan Chonghuan.
After all, what does it mean that a general of a country only listens to Yuan Chonghuan but does not listen to the imperial court? This shows that Liaodong's military affairs have gradually gotten out of control and have a tendency to warlordize, and this is exactly what Yuan Chonghuan caused, and the thoughts behind it are self-evident.
In this way, after nine months of trial, the wall fell down and was pushed by everyone, and with the help of the Houjin leader Huang Taiji, yuan Chonghuan's crime of conniving with his subordinates at the time of the Houjin disaster was also found, so the Chongzhen Emperor, with disappointment and resentment, executed him lingchi on the charges of "collegiality" and "killing the marshal exclusively".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="39" > the aftermath</h1>
After Yuan Chonghuan's death, it also showed that the "five-year Pingliao" plan expected by the Chongzhen Emperor was declared bankrupt, and the Liaodong defensive line he spent countless manpower and material resources on the empire not only began to lose control, but also faltered again in the face of the Later Jin offensive, making the situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty worse and worse.
Perhaps this lesson was too tragic, so that the Chongzhen Emperor had a seed of distrust of the ministers in his heart, which made him extremely harsh on the ministers after this, and the offending officials were dismissed from office or executed, and suspicion gradually arose.
In this way, the Chongzhen Emperor and his ministers continued to deviate from Germany, and the situation in the country continued to collapse, and finally went to the abyss of destruction, leaving only a sigh of "the king is not the king of the subjugated country, the subject is actually the subject of the subjugation of the country".